May 20, 2019 Updated 5/20/2019
Bill Bregar Plastics Machinery Group will have space to show machines in operation with its new facility.
Bedford Heights, Ohio — Plastics Machinery Group has invested about $700,000 to renovate a factory building into a showplace for injection molding presses, extruders, blow molders, thermoforming machines, rotational molding machines and auxiliary equipment such as shredders and grinders, loaders and temperature control units.
PMG President Don Kruschke said the 18,000-square-foot building is big enough to house 30 machines, and the company can run the equipment for prospective customers.
That’s a big advantage over PMG’s previous reliance only on warehouses, where machines could be stored, but not powered up.
“This proves that the machinery works. Now you can come here and see it run,” he said
PMG built a comfortable front lobby and meeting room so customers can relax and get something to eat and drink while seeing the machinery through a glass wall.
Kruschke bought the building and the company that was there, a specialty handrail manufacturer, in June 2018. The investment included painting, a new floor, remodeled offices, new lighting and windows. PMG officials also beefed up the electrical system, from 208 volts to 480 volts, so they could run big plastics machinery.
About 60 guests attended a four-day open house at the PMG machinery operation May 7-10. The open house overlapped two days of trade show in Cleveland that included Compounding World Expo, Plastics Recycling Expo and Plastics Extrusion Expo.
During the open house, PMG ran an injection molding machine, a Sencorp 2500 thermoformer, two grinders and a large Zerma combination shredder/grinder, demonstrating how it can handle large parts such as purgings and pieces of plastic pipe.
PMG also stocks an inventory of Motan vacuum loaders and Shini temperature control units.
PMG, which buys and sells plastics equipment, moved its business to Bedford Heights from its longtime home in Solon, Ohio, in 2017 when the company bought Loveman Steel Corp. and its 72,000-square-foot, heavy industrial building. That operation remains in the steel fabrication business-making large components for steel mills and other markets and also houses PMG’s machinery management and employees. The plastics machinery showroom is next door in the separate, newly renovated building.
Plastics Machinery Group An open house for the new PMG showroom.
Kruschke said PMG typically has about 60 machines in inventory, with 30 in the machinery building and others in the Loveman building, where they also can be run under power, and at an outside warehouse. The numbers change as machinery get bought and sold.
PMG employees also continuing to make hand railing, as that operation moved into the steel fabrication building.
PMG has 35 employees for both the machinery and steel fabrication operations. For Kruschke, a plastics machinery guy, the steel fabrication business is giving him an education into the U.S. steel industry. PMG has increased its steel operation workweek from 40 hours to 58 hours, which includes time-and-a-half on weekends.
“It’s showing signs that the economy’s strong,” Kruschke said, as he eyed a mammoth tundish, used for feeding molten steel into molds in a continuous casting machine.
To obtain reprints or copyright permissions:
E-mail: [email protected]
Visit: Reprints
This post appeared first on Plastics News.